Welcome to this fresh new year on Hobsonville Point, where we will keep right on becoming the most interesting place to live in northwest Auckland.

The Residents Society extends a big welcome to you if you’re a new arrival here. We hope you’ll love living at the Point. If there’s anything you want help with, outline your query in an email to [email protected]. The staff who monitor that address daily will answer your queries or, if there are no quick answers, will send them on to people who can help with info or advice.

There’s a lot going on as we head into the golden end of summer. Wednesday Feb 6 will see the long-awaited opening of Little Creatures, the big craft brewery that’s about to add to the range of other well-established food and drink outlets down by the wharf.

And put March 23 in your calendar as it’s the day for Hobsonville’s gig in Auckland Council’s Music in Parks programme. It’s always a pleasure to lounge on the grass under the big trees by Catalina Café to listen to live music.

A group of keen local volunteers met late last year to begin to plan some other great Hobsonville events and activities for 2019, and will meet again soon. We’ll supply more info once planning is a little more advanced.

The kite-flying day that’s been held at Bomb Point for the last five years is not happening this year. The Society would have been required to put in $10,000 to support it this time, and as informal research revealed most of the people who attended in the past did not live here, we decided to come up with a new idea.

For starters, we’re getting excited about lighting up June with a glittering local Matariki celebration that families can take part in. We’re just beginning to plan – more info will come your way in due course.

Meanwhile, we’re a little short of venues for celebrating in! It was unfortunate that the HQ building had to shut before Christmas due to sewerage problems that had to be rectified. Hopefully it will reopen soon. And as we get into 2019, both Chichester Cottage and the Sunderland Lounge will be opening their doors – dates to be advised.

We’re all also eagerly awaiting the start of weekend ferry services. At our society’s last AGM in October, residents voted almost unanimously to pitch in $50,000 of Society funds to help get a trial service started. Larger sums are being contributed by HLC and local businesses to enable the service to get under way, but as yet we’ve not had advice on when sailings will begin.

Read on for more items that cover the Buckley Avenue part-closure; news on security matters; a call for some volunteers to help make Chichester Cottage shine; and the search for the right shade solution for the waterpark’s play area.

Best wishes,

the HPRS Committee